Be Brave Not Safe

On a fairly frequent basis I’ve had to suggest to my 3 youngest sons that they check their email as I had just sent them something important (or funny). Being completely text-based, email just isn’t a priority for them. While I too am a texter, these are (if anything) short, temporary flashes of information not meant to live past the moment.

I’ve often thought of sending an email indicating that the first to respond within 24 hours will earn $100. I haven’t done so, as I think this would be a waste of my time 🙂

Could an email message be worth $200? Why, yes it could. Here is an example.

In December we sold the car of one of our sons, to a young man from “away.” During the last stage of negotiation he tried to get me to drop the price by another $200. I held firm, he took the car. As he drove off my son said “Dad, did you let him know about the windows not working properly and that they come down when on the highway?” I felt terrible, as he had test driven the car in our neighborhood (low-speed) and on a cold winter day (when he wouldn’t have tried taking the windows down).

His contact with me via craigslist had been through email. So, I sent him a message to let him know that I’d be happy to send him the $200 because I had totally spaced the malfunctioning windows, asking him to confirm the address to send the check to. We received his response several days ago, as follows:

“Sorry for taking so long to respond to your message, I haven’t opened my email in over 6 months. I would greatly appreciate the check as I had to have both the windows fixed anyway for it to pass inspection. The total was around $200. Thank you for your honesty and again, I apologize for the delay.”

Although I had completely written him off months ago, I sent him a check.

I’ve heard adults say similar things. How can this be?!? If we have an email address, how can we, in all good conscience, not open our email for a period any longer than 1-2 days?

Saying that I haven’t opened my email in 3 (or more) days is like saying I haven’t gone to my US Postal mailbox in 3 (or more) days.

Increasingly email is replacing paper mail (as it should)! We are burning through the forests of our planet to create paper when (I’d suggest) over 90% of this waste can be handled electronically. Whether we like it or not (and I love it!), email is increasingly becoming the method that firms we do business with want to communicate with us. This includes our school, bank, employer, insurance company, electric company, etc.

Given that fact, it is important to check our e-mailbox daily, or at least every couple of days.

I know, I know…Some may say: “Each time I go to my email box it is full of spam (junk mail).” Or, “There are so many emails in there I just don’t have the time.”

What if there is a message from an institution you do business with or containing some important information being shared by a family member or friend (for which Facebook is inappropriate)? Ignorance of the message is no excuse for “missing it” (a bill, late notice, important date or event, etc.).

There are some very simple methods to manage an email inbox so that it isn’t full of clutter. Here are steps I’ve found effective:

1. Use Gmail (it is free and doesn’t need to change each time we switch Internet Service Providers): Any junk mail received is automatically filtered into its own (Spam) folder. I don’t have to do a thing. On occasion I’ll check the junk folder to see if anything was incorrectly flagged, and have never found a problem (in years). Other email clients have similar functions. And, if they don’t, or don’t work effectively — then we can switch!
2. Use the same time management method as handling paper mail. That is, touch it once and only once. Upon opening a message there are 3 simple options: 1) Respond / handle immediately and/or, 2) Delete it, or 3) File it (in a folder separate from the inbox) for future reference. To support this we might have folders for personal, finance, job/career/business, church, etc.

If you were to view my inbox you would seldom see more than 4-5 emails. Anything more than this and I know I’m not handling something that is awaiting my attention.

A guideline to consider would be: if there are more emails in the inbox than can be displayed on the first screen then cleanup is required. The question to ask ourselves is: How many times do I want to chew my cud (that is, repeatedly review a continuously growing inbox looking for items to be handled)? I HATE wasting time 🙂

In closing, it is extremely beneficial to treat our email inbox with MORE diligence than our paper mail box. And, to contribute to the “green” cause, we can increasingly go paperless by requesting that firms we do business with send us correspondence via email and stop sending paper!

The online world offers an incredibly rich resource for anyone with Internet access; a tool to enhance our lives and further our career. But, like any “tool”, if we are not careful we can harm ourselves and/or others. In this case, by what we say (post).

Did you know:

• Anything we post online is a permanent record? While we may post something (on Facebook, for example), and then shortly there-after delete it (I wish I had never said that), it is NOT gone. Facebook makes no guarantees that they wipe our information clean, just because we deleted it (and it is no longer visible — to us).
• If an investigation was being launched on us Facebook is one of the first places they would go!
• Things we post online can be used as the grounds for suspension from school, even getting the police involved?
• Things we post online can cost a job, cause a public relations scandal for our company, even a serious and costly lawsuit?
• The online world is what is now used by people to investigate their genealogy? Have you ever explored Ancestry.com? If not, check it out! They provide access to TONS of information on our ancestry that was generated offline (way before the Internet, such as census records from over 100 years ago). Just imagine how much Facebook is becoming an ever-increasing resource for this type of activity.
• Facebook, LinkedIn and other social media sites are an extremely valuable tool for prospective employers to learn about us prior to deciding if they’d like to interview us.

In the past few years I have seen others impacted by unanticipated outcomes resulting from their posts to Facebook. What follows is perhaps an extreme, but an all too real, example.

During one of our recent adventures (outside the country) we met a family of 4 from Europe. He is the CEO of a company and she “was” an employee of the same firm. They also have 2 young children. The husband and wife were still “stinging” from an incident that occurred only weeks earlier. As told by the wife…One evening after a few glasses of wine she posted a racist comment on Facebook. Shortly after doing so (within minutes) she decided to delete the comment. Phew, right?!? Wrong! It was too late. One of her “friends” on Facebook is of the racial descent that she had commented about. Insulted and infuriated, this “friend” had reposted her comment and not long afterwards it was in the hands of the press. You know what the press did with it don’t you. A “hot” story developed in which the comment was fully attributed to the CEO, his company, his wife and employee. A public relations nightmare ensued. The wife was immediately terminated from her post.

After this family had left our table, our boys could only shake their heads in disbelief and one commented: “What a numby!”

Considering the potential impacts that can result from our posts it makes good sense, then, to consider a number of principles and guidelines to adhere to, such as:

• What Mom used to say: “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all.” That one goes quite far!!!
• Asking ourselves: “Would I want my children to read this?” I know, I know, some will say “My kids are too young to read.” What if you died today? Our Facebook accounts will NOT be deleted when we cross over to the other side. It is free, remember? As such, it will persist and our children (and grandchildren) will be able to read our complete journal of postings. What kind of example are we setting? Is this the kind of legacy we’d like to leave behind?
• Asking ourselves: “Is what I’m about to post going to further my career and/or social standing – or shoot myself in the foot?”

We can’t use the excuse: “This is my personal life, which is totally separate from my career.” Wrong! There is only one you and there is only one Internet; wide open to everyone! There is no separation. And, there is far less privacy than you could imagine.

What about freedom of speech? Go for it. Just don’t complain when it is difficult getting a job, or when a job is lost because of something posted online. I’d suggest that the woman in our example above is virtually unemployable. Any potential employer would ask him/herself: “What kind of damage might she do to my company one evening after she has had a few glasses of wine and Facebook at her fingertips?”

The key question: Do we want the odds stacked in our favor (for success), or not?

“The person who sends out positive thoughts activates the world around him positively and draws back to himself positive results.” ~ Norman Vincent Peale

The Internet and more specifically social media can be used for so many good things. Let’s not let our use of it become a millstone around our neck.